보증금/월세 표기와 세 개의 제약: 어떤 방을 먼저 문의할까
Minjae must move within three weeks and has set a ceiling of 60만 원 per month for total housing cost (월세 plus 관리비). He needs to be within a 10-minute walk of a Line 2 station, and he has no Korean guarantor. Three ads from a sharing-house site:
- A: 보증금 500/월세 45, 관리비 7만 원 별도, 역까지 버스로 5분(도보 15분), 즉시 입주
- B: 보증금 300/월세 52, 관리비 포함, 역까지 도보 7분, 4주 후 입주 가능
- C: 보증금 1,000/월세 40, 관리비 9만 원 별도, 역까지 도보 3분, 즉시 입주, 보증금은 500으로 조정 가능
Minjae's first reading of ad A was "월세 500만 원, 보증금 45만 원", so he crossed it off as impossible and focused on B, which he calls "the 52-man-won one with nothing extra". He is now deciding which listing to call first.
1. Which listing satisfies all three constraints, and how does evaluating each listing on 월세 alone change the ranking?
Read the worked answer
Convert every listing to one comparable number - 월세 + 관리비:
- A: 45 + 7 = 52만 원
- B: 52, 관리비 포함 = 52만 원
- C: 40 + 9 = 49만 원
Then apply constraints in the order that eliminates fastest. Walk time: A is 15 minutes on foot (5 by bus), so A fails the 10-minute condition. Move-in date: B is available in four weeks, so B fails the three-week deadline. Guarantor: C's deposit is adjustable to 500 and the ad sets no guarantor requirement, so C survives. Answer: C.
Ranking on 월세 alone gives 40 (C) < 45 (A) < 52 (B), which happens to keep C first - but it wrongly makes A look 7만 원 cheaper than B, when they are identical at 52. The 관리비 포함/별도 distinction is the whole comparison: an all-inclusive rent is not an expensive rent, it is a rent whose second line has already been added. A learner who ranks by the first number is ranking by typography.
2. Explain the 500/45 notation problem and how it distorted Minjae's judgement of ad A, and state what cash he needs on day one for the listing you recommend.
Read the worked answer
Korean rental ads print 보증금 first, 월세 second: 500/45 means 보증금 500만 원 and 월세 45만 원. Minjae read the slash as 월세/보증금, which turned a mid-range room into an impossible one and removed the only listing that was immediately available at his walk-time ceiling's edge. The cost of that misreading was not a wrong final answer - it was a wasted elimination, which in a timed 읽기 section is worse, because he then spent his attention on B.
For C: 보증금 500만 원 (adjusted down from 1,000) plus the first month's 49만 원 = 549만 원 before move-in, plus any 중개보수 and the usual 소개비 if a share-house agent is involved. The deposit is not part of the 60만 원 monthly ceiling, but it is part of feasibility, and exam passages frequently place the binding constraint in the deposit rather than the rent.
The question to ask on the call: what exactly does 관리비 cover (water, internet, gas), and does lowering the deposit from 1,000 to 500 raise the 월세? A deposit reduction that lifts rent by 5만 원 would push C to 54 and out of budget.